Open gunsight



United States Patent O OPEN GUNSIGHT Constantine Meeiin, Geneva, Ohio Application July 24, 1956, Serial No. No. 599,716

7 Claims. (Cl. 33-47) This invention relates to firearms and more particularly to gunsights for firearms constructed as original equipment or as attachments for the firearm.

An object of the invention is to provide an easily produced and inexpensive sighting device which is practical and superior to ordinary sights which are presently available, being far more accurate and in most cases much easier to use.

A further object of the invention is to provide a gunsight for firearms, particularly a rifle, the sight being either originally provided on the rie or as a replacement attachment that is easily mounted for those who desire a superior sight for both quick and accurate sight` ing, the gunsight which exemplifies the principles of the invention taking full advantage of all variations of daylight without dimming or blurring and being so constructed as to improve the marksmanship, even of those with poor vision.

A more explicit object of the invention is to provide a gunsight assembly for a rie which has a rear sight provided with a pair of parallel vertical edges and a horizontal bottom edge and an open top defining a sight opening, the upper extremities of the parallel side edges being joined with a horizontal top edge, together with a front sight that has a pair of side walls, a top wall and a bottom in which there is an upwardly opening slot, the side walls being adapted to be visioned parallel to the side edges of the sight opening and with thin light bars therebetween while the top wall of the front sight is adapted to be brought into horizontal alignment with the top edge of the sight opening and the upwardly opening slot in the bottom wall of the front sight is obscured from vision below the lower edge of the sight opening. The result of this is to have the sight accurate for both horizontal and vertical sighting of the rifle on which the gunsight assembly is mounted.

In many cases, gunsights require the hunter, marksman, etc. to peer through very small openings or to align curved edges or surfaces with each other or with crossed hairs. The demand made on the human eye in sighting in these ways is excessive resulting in dissatisfaction. Accordingly, a further object of this invention is to provide a gunsight assembly which is easy to use in that it does not demand high vision capabilities, requiring principally the eye of the marksman to distinguish between light dark and sizes thereof in aligning the front and rear sights on the target.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a firearm and more particularly a rie barrel on which a gunsight assembly exemplifying the principles of the invention, is mounted;

Patented Mar. 4, 1958 e ICC Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2 2 of Figure l illustrating principally the front gunsight;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Figure 1 and illustrating the rear gunsight attachment to the rifle barrel; and,

Figure 4 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view showing principally the sight pattern for the gunsight assembly when it is trained properly on target.

In the accompanying drawing there is a barrel 10 which schematically represents any firearm on which the gunsight assembly may be advantageously mounted and used. The gunsight assembly consists of a rear sight 12 and a front sight 14. The rear sight is constructed of a spring metal or plastic plate 16 whose main feature is an opening 18 made to the correct size and shape to correspond with the front sight 14 in order to yield the desired sighting. The fiat plate 16 is attachable to the barrel 10 by any standard technique. Only one is illustrated, it being intended that this illustration should suliice for other standard methods and fastening techniques. Accordingly, the means fo attaching the plate 16 to the rifle barrel consist of a transverse wedge 20 slidable in transverse slot 22, the latter being of a cross-sectional shape similar to the cross-sectional shape of wedge 20 and extending across the upper surface of the barrel 10. Hold-down screw 24 is threaded in the wedge 20 in order to adjust the tension of plate 16 on the notched elevator 28 that is adjustably carried by the rifle bar-rel 10 in a known manner.

The flat plate 16 has a right angularly disposed panel 30 at its rear edge in which there is a notch 32 to accommodate the steps of the notched elevator 28. In addition, panel 30 has opening 18 formed therein. The opening has edges which are preferably beveled at approximately 45 in order to reduce glare when using the gunsight assembly. Sight opening 18 includes two parallel spaced, vertical edges 38 and 40 together with a bottom edge 42 that is normal to the parallel edges 38 and 40. The top of the sight opening 18 is open. The top edge 43 of panel 30 on one side of sight opening 18 is parallel to and in alignmentvwith the top edge 44 of panel 30 on the other side of sight opening 18.

The front sight 14 is mounted on the rifle barrel in any customary way, for example, by means of wedge 50 that is slidable in a transverse similarly shaped slot 52 in the rifle barrel. The front gunsight has a pair of par allel side walls 54 and 56 together with a top wall 58 that is joined to the upper ends of the side walls and is perpendicular thereto. It also has a bottom wall 60 parallel to top wall 58 and at the lower extremities of side walls 56 and S4. The bottom wall has an upwardly opening slot 62 in the center thereof, this upwardly opening slot having side walls 63 and 64 that are parallel to each other and that are joined at their upper ends to bottom wall 62 and at their lower endsto the wedge 50. A pair of cross hairs 70 and 71 are in the confines of the walls of the front sight.

Figure 4 demonstrates the gunsight assembly in proper alignment and illustrates the features of the invention which make it superior to the ordinary sights usually l mounted on guns. The viewer will note the fine lines or S6 of the front gunsight and the edges 40 and 38, respectively, of the rear sight. This makes a very quick and accurate alignment of the two sights insofar as the horizontal plane is concerned. Note that the outside edges of the front sight are used in coordination with the inside edges of the sight opening 18 in the rear sight with the cross hairs framed therebetween. The use of light bars in this way is far superior to lining up edges of members or slots or other openings inasmuch as the sighter cannot see if he is overlapping the sight edges. In addition, it

has been found that vision becomes blurred or fuzzy when the two edges are brought almost together.

For vertical adjustment of the front and rear sights the sighter merely obscures the light from slot 62 With the bottom part of the panel 30 beneath sight opening 18. lt has been found that this is a superior method for sighting 1n that it leaves a wide eld of View through the front sight 14 in which the lower, the upper and both sides of any object are visible. When the slot 62 is obscured in this way, the upper wall 58 has its upper edge in alignment with the upper edges 43 and 44, forming therewith, a single line.

After aligning the front and rear sights, which can be done very quickly and accurately by the manner described, the sighter needs only to align the target with the cross hairs at their intersection and very accurate sighting has been made. Itis apparent that the construction of the front and rear sights do not eliminate desired light in dusk or darkness and yet there is no :glare caused by bright light. There is no fuzziness of vision because there are no narrow slots or small peep sights or holes to see through. The rather square design of the front sight and the rear sight opening enables the eye to keep the rie straight and uncanted because visually, and without realizing it, the sighter causes live vertical lines represented as continuations of the edges and walls previously described, to be brought into alignment. This makes it practically impossible to cant the rifle. Moreover, there are three horizontal lines encountered by the eye that are brought into alignment making it further dicult to cant the firearm without knowing it.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. For use on a firearm, a gunsight assembly comprising a/front and a rear sight, said rear sight having a sight opening provided with two parallel side edges and a bottom edge normal to said side edges to form a straight sided rear sight opening, said front sight having a pair of parallel side walls whose outer surfaces are adapted to be brought into parallelism with said parallel side edges of said rear sight, and bottom wall portions extending inwardly of the lower ends of said side walls for aligning with the bottom edge of said sight opening.

2. For use on a firearm, a gunsight assembly comprising a front and a rear sight, said rear sight having a sight opening provided with two parallel side edges and a bottom edge normal to said side edges to form a stralght sided rear sight opening, said front sight having a pair of parallel side walls whose outer surfaces are adapted to be brought into parallelism with said parallel side 4 edges of said rear sight with light space bars of equal width therebetween, a bottom wall secured to said parallel side walls and normal to each, and a slot in said bottom wall to provide a 4gage when bringing said bottom wall -into alignment with said bottom edge of said sight opening.

3. For use on a rearm, a gunsight assembly comprising a front and a rear sight, said rear sight having a sight opening provided with two parallel side edges and a bottom edge normal to said side edges to form a straight sided rear sight opening, said front sight having a pair of parallel side walls whose outer surfaces are adapted to be brought into parallelism with said parallel side edges of said rear sight with light space bars of equal width therebetween, a bottom wall secured to said parallel side walls and normal to each, a slot in said bottom wall to provide a gage when bringing said bottom wall into alignment with said bottom edge of said sight opening, said rear sight having an upper edge normal to said parallel side edges and on opposite sides of said sight opening, said front sight having a top wall which is adapted to be visioned between said parallel side edges and coplanar with said upper edge.

4. The gunsight assembly of claim 3 wherein there are cross hairs carried by the walls of said front gunsight.

5. A gunsight assembly comprising awrearnsight that has a sight opening with a pair of parallel straight edges, a front sight having a pair of parallel side walls adapted to beialigned with said straight edges and with a space between each so as to present thin lines of light to the viewer on both sides of the front sight when the front sight is properly aligned in a horizontal plane with respect to the rear sight, a bottom wall constituting a part of said front sight and having a notch therein which opens upwardly therethrough, said rear sight having a panel provided with an edge that denes the bottom of said sight opening, and said panel beneath said edge being adapted to obscure said slot when said front sight and said rear sight are vertically aligned.

6. The assembly of claim 5 wherein said front sight has a top wall and said rear sight has a top edge adapted to be brought into single line alignment when said front sight is vertically aligned with respect to said rear sight.

7. The combination of claim 5 wherein said front sight has a pair of cross hairs therein.

References Cited in the flle of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,406,620 Dear Feb. 14, 1922 2,466,724 Meyer Apr. 12, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 20,158 Great Britain 1895 1,772 Great Britain 1896 89,278 Germany Nov. 6. 1896 

